Well, this may come as a surprise to sum, unfortunately not me, that even to this day we still have people calling us witches and saying we should be burnt
What do you think?
Is it a equal faith or are we going against the almighty?

Those who say people practicing Wicca, or other Pagan religions, should be burnt are usually fanatics and in a mutually exclussive religion. (Though, some may say that faith and fanaticism are really just semantics.) And because they are in a mutually exclussive religion, such as Christianity, the followers in these types of religions believe their God is more powerful or should be worshipped above all other demi-gods, as I will put it (hopefully the terms I'm using are correct).


Although I'm Roman Catholic, from a branch of Christianity, I am still open to Pagan practices and other religions.


In general anybody can believe what they wish to believe (or not wish to believe for Athiests), there's absolutely nothing wrong with believing in a different god/goddess or gods/goddesses. All religions have equal faith to each other. But like I said, some would like to believe and proclaim that it's a sin to believe in any other god than what they believe in, which it isn't.

Plus in other points, all the different religions have something in common, there is at least one major god/goddess and minor gods/goddesses (or demi-god/goddesses, which is, I think, the proper term) or
archangels/angels (though angels are not mutually exclussive to anyone).


Going a little off track here, what I mean is that I know there are people still calling someone follows in Pagan beliefs, usually Wicca, a witch (which isn't a real insult to them since I think it's an "all right" term. Though, I don't think there are warlocks [as producers use in movies] only male witches.) and that they should be burnt (not very nice, obviously). It's kind of sad though how some still think that way, how they still judge and don't try to learn first and understand.

Another point I want to make, I'm not the kind of person who would promote satan worshipping. This term was used back in the old days, and possibly today, usually from ingorance. Especially in circumstances (sometimes) where people are Wiccan and non-Wiccan believers think Wiccan believers are worshipping satan, a bad misconception. I mean, in reality, Wicca is an earthen religion dealing with good energy and a peaceful mind. It's not really satan worshipping, or Black Magick, because I think that's what some people, including me, call the left-hand path, or bad way/direction. (not trying to relate hands to good or evil just as a well-known term)

Any comments on my rediculously long response? lol (sorry, I didn't mean to make it so long; I tend to ramble off)

No your responses are wanted. You also provided a valid response. I think that people just fear what they don't understand. don't give them any attention.

I think every religion is persecuted at one time or another. It's a sad truth.

it's not that sad. 90% of all the wars ever fought in the history of the world are a result of religious conflict. nations have toppled, societies crumbled, families destroyed. billions and billions of lives lost at the hands of religion.

as far as im concerned there isnt much difference in worshipping god, satan, buddha, a rubber ducky, mcdonalds, mastercard, nike, the dollar bill. i think sprituality can be a good thing, and an individuals journey to find what they believe to be true. but organized religion, and a system of beliefs.... it always ends in a fight with someone who doesnt agree. and those small fights grow into massive balls of rage, hate, and fear. lets not forget fear.

Your last three sentences had it right. Religion isn't the root of conflict; people use religion as the excuse. If religion simply never existed, then humans would merely fight over something else, such as money, power, land and treasure. Some people, such as Muslim extremists, take their religion way out of context to get what they desire, and then use their religion to excuse their actions. It's not Islams fault, it's the extremists.

To simply blame religion for the majority of war is only looking at the underlying picture.

yeah i can agree with that to an extent. but without religion, there would be much less hate and general conflict in the world. i firmly believe that.

its a silly thing to believe in but believe in what you want i guess. i just dont understand how anyone of this century can believe in many gods or goddesses and stuff.

There would be less conflict involving religion. Then again, you'd have more conflict and hate involving other issues. You're assuming that because religion would be gone, there would not be an increase of wars and conflicts with other valuables, such as power.

and you're assuming that without religion people would be more apt to fight for things they already fight over. which one of us is right? neither, because this is hypothetical.

but to assume that people would fight MORE over things they already fight over, simply because religion is gone seems illogical to me. what would cause people to have more reason to fight? i dont think that religion holds back much fighting currently.

without religion we certainly wouldnt have a quarter of the genocides we've had throughout history. im not talking about modern day extremists. im talking about whole populations being forced to believe a certain thing or face death. why is Christianity the largest religion worldwide? because they killed the most people and enforced the worst punishment to those who refused to believe, for the longest period of time. Though if you look at the bible many of its stories and signs arte past down from many many previous belief systems. im getting off track though. that has nothing to do with what im saying. im saying that without religion there would be less genocide throughout history. your saying that without religion people would just fight more for other things that have always existed. which i dont understand really.

That would be human nature. If you're not fighting over one thing, then you're fighting over another.

People have priorities regarding what they want. Religion, being a key part of a person’s life, can be one of the most important things some people have. A person will fight to the death for religion, and other conflicts are no longer something they worry about. At one point, you reach carrying capacity for what you can fight for. A human or group can only fight or wage war for so much. If religion is taken out of the picture, it'll open new door ways for other crap to be fought over and fought hard for.

For example, in an area where there are two high schools that are very competitive, you could say a priority would be to beat the other school; however, if one school is taken down, you now have new conflicts at the one school. One conflict is taken away, and another arises.

I see no reason why the same cannot be said for religion. People fight for religious ground, but if religion is taken away, some other reason to wage war is bound to come up.

As I said before, religion isn't necessarily the reason behind a lot of wars. People want their ways or cultures spread, and an easy way to gain support is to say, "My religion says to do it."

If I were to make my own religion that doesn't like the idea of working off the clock, I could quite easily go to my teacher and tell her/him that my religion is against homework. Was it religion that caused me to stop doing my homework? No, it was me taking my religion out of context and using it as an excuse.You can only start a war concerning so many things. A nation or empire can't fight over every single valuable; it's impossible. But if you close the door on one factor, it opens the door to another.

In the past, religion has been a major excuse for wars. However, as we have seen the rise of secular, nonreligious societies and governments, we have not seen a lessoning of war and suffering.

Atheist governments have been just as brutal as religious governments, yet you still enjoy pinning the blame on religion.
That's basically the same as saying if Neil Armstrong hadn't landed on the moon, the nobody would have landed on the moon. Just because you take one thing away doesn't mean the same thing can't happen again, just with different circumstances.Didn't Islam just recently take over as the world’s largest religion? I recall reading an article stating that.

No, it isn't, but most religion is mutually exclusive. Your 'some' is a lot of people in modern religion, and if you take most religions by what they say in their holy writings, they are of the opinion that there's only one way to salvation. But believing this doesn't mean you still can't respect other religions, merely that you think they're all going to hell and/or other punishment along with the total non believers

Dude wow this is an amazing topic mainly because i have just read the da vinci code thats basiclly full of paganism, well I think your pretty awsome y'know lol but theres no way i would convert

i thought that we currently lived in one of the least war-ridden periods in history? and as well the most well documented (??). We hear about things happening more frequently despite the fact that numbers are actually going down? I'm talking per capita of course. I can't pinpoint where I heard that unfortunitely, but i was certain ive read it somewhere. sorry.

That's a valid point. Im not saying there wouldnt still have been fighting, but I do think it would have been to a much lesser degree, depending on where in the world you are. I dont think there would have been people coming over to north america from europe destroying whole communities by the day, raping and murdering everyone they saw, to take over their land and suckle their resources for profit. im not saying they wouldnt have come over, im just saying i think it would have been a much more harmonious interweaving of cultures. not so angry, and savage. perhaps naively i believe that people would have been more accepting of one another, and been more willing to share things. i think the segregation between religions, historically, has been a brutally strong pillar in the creation of all modern societies. perhaps i'm way off. i dont know. i do also tend to believe that societies are generally cold and bitter things. and individuals i suppose as well. but then im usually refering, albeit selfishly and perhaps too conveniently, to white native-killing colonialist societies.